Stuff You Should Know - How IEDs Work

Episode Date: September 18, 2013

Improvised explosive devices were the primary killer of American troops in Iraq and continue to top the list in Afghanistan. Their use is so prevalent among guerrillas and insurgents because they are so effective. They are easy to put together with parts that are easy to obtain and they are easy to hide. Learn about these terrible weapons in this episode. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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launch, use offer code SYSK to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain. Hey and welcome to the podcast, I'm Josh Clark and Charles Debbie Chuck Bryant's with me, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. And Jay's getting a lot more loose with the laughter, have you noticed? Yeah, she wants to be noticed. Either that or her sense of humor has been ratcheted up. We're gonna look one day, she's gonna be like literally pulled up to our desk.

Yeah, with her chin on her hand like, Hey, what you guys doing? Hey, nice shirt. Hey, thank you, you compliment the shirt every time I wear it. I know, let me set the scene. We're in our serial killer-like room and Josh is wearing his mystery science theater shirt. 3000. 3,000 with yeah, that's the one And it's got the guys there. It's a silhouette the famous silhouette in the movie theater seats. Yeah, and it's just a great shirt

Yeah, one time you me and I were at home watching it on I don't know the internet or something like that laugh and laugh and laugh and yeah, and She had such a good time that she got me this t-shirt to commemorate it That's a great reason So thanks a lot mst3k guys. Yeah, Emily does. I got a dexter shirt. I got a true blood shirt Yeah, I got a madmen shirt you guys are laughing at dexter I know parks and wrecked her every time children's hospital shirts on the way. I'm like enough with the shirts right exactly fun TV events Right you can just show what TV show you've watched recently by wearing that t-shirt

I'll do like Michael Stipe remember that year. He wore like 10 shirts at the VMAs. No He did he kept taking off a shirt for each award. They won and it was another like a statement political statement. Oh, you know stipe Well, yeah, I Found his bestest. Let's stipe do his thing. Let's stipe be stipe. Yeah, that's a shirt You know, he's got a sculpture like right there. What do you mean? He has a an outdoor sculpture at the next building over the sovereign building in the back really right next to the valet there's like six seven eight like cute little

larger than life foxes and he's running around in a circle and it's Michael Stipe Yeah, did he do it or did he conceive it and then had some sculpture go do it? If he did he's taking full credit for it. Okay. I mean, I believe he did it. They're called the stipe boxes I can't remember what it is But it's got like or what the name is but it's got like a plaque that says, you know Who the artist is and give some background? Well, look at that Michael Stipe had no idea. Yeah, and it's pretty good, too I have to say I'm gonna go check that out. You should write up in this Okay

Chuck, yes Do you know what an IED is? I do I bet some folks might not though you hear that word It's one of those things you hear on the news a lot and some people might just sort of You know, it gets lodged in the brain as I don't know what that is, but I hear it enough spell it out for him. I The improvised explosive device and that is the I believe still the leading cause of Troop death in the Middle East Yeah, the mission in Iraq is over right like we've totally drawn withdrawn. Yeah, I was talking about Afghanistan

Right, okay, so then that even it was it remained then forever now the number one killer of US troops in Iraq And it still is now in Afghanistan as far as I know Yes, I have a couple of stats here Mm-hmm. It is still the top threat. You're correct killed 104 US troops in 2012 Compared with 196 in 2011. That's a significant drop 46 percent. Yeah. Yeah, they're getting better at Fine and we'll get to this of their methods of getting better at rooting them out with machines and From what I gather reading the stuff just the the soldiers being there They just sort of get in that mind. They're just getting better at this like sniffing out

Sniffing them off the case. Right. Yeah, these guerrilla tactics, you know, yeah Or you're there the more you just understand the enemy that article also though said that that statistic reflects just fewer troops to be Attacked though as well. Sure, but yeah, we definitely have gotten better As a military over the last Decade or so. Yeah Like 12 years, I guess wasn't it 2001 that we invaded Afghanistan or 2002. Yeah mission accomplished and We came face-to-face with IEDs pretty quickly

and Really kind of had to learn what we were doing like I remember The the soldiers were just driving around in regular Humvees and getting like blown to smithereens from IEDs left and right And it took like a year or two before they had Humvees that were armored enough to protect them against Humvee blasts Yeah Well, it's sort of new though because this article points out at the beginning of the war. They weren't as popular and It was mainly gunfire mortars and grenades were the cause of the injury because we were fighting a non-insurgent group We were fighting the Iraqi military. Yeah, we were fighting

But the Taliban. Well, yeah, you're right. Yeah, they were Yeah, no, I guess yeah, but yeah in Iraq. We were definitely fighting the Iraqi military. Yeah, but then the insurgency came after that Yeah, they definitely have realized how effective they can be when you can Put it in a dead dog's carcass on the side of the road. Yeah or a cow or something like that Yeah, it's very scary stuff. You can hide it just about anywhere and they're not new at the insurgents In Iraq and Afghanistan didn't invent IEDs. They go back at least into the Vietnam War

Where the Viet Cong figured out that a good way to get American troops blown up is to put an IED in like an old Coke can or something or an old beer can yeah leave it along the side of the road where you knew they were going to be walking because Everyone knows that Americans like to kick cans down the road and apparently all it took was one kick and then boom the whole Platoon was in danger. Yeah, that was an IED. Yeah, the IRA Irish Republican Army obviously use those in the 60s and 70s And then you know when you hear about The Boston bomber or the Centennial Park bomber. These are IEDs. Yeah, it's like homemade bombs, right?

It's an improvised explosive device, which basically the big distinction is You didn't buy it from a From a commercial manufacturer, right or it didn't come from a commercial manufacturer, right like a pipe bomb That's an IED. Yeah, then have to be in Iraq or Afghanistan And like you said, I mean the reason that they are in use and man, they are in use Is because they are an effective weapon against a larger especially larger conventional army. Yeah It's it's they're cheap. They're easy to get the parts to they're fairly easy to put together and Apparently there's a lot of information out there about how to do it like the Times Square bombing that was foiled

Yeah, a couple years back that the bomb that that guy had was virtually identical to the ones used in the Boston Marathon Bombing. Oh really? So clearly there's some instruction out there that people who want to can get to and make these things from just parts You buy at the store. Yeah, the internet giveth in it. Take it away for sure. Yeah, right? All right, so you want to talk about the basic parts of an IED? Yeah, there's five of them. Yeah, you got your power supply mm-hmm Basically your trigger and your detonator need electricity usually from like say a battery or Well battery. Yeah, I mean to be as simple as like a flashlight battery. Yeah

So that's pretty scary The trigger is the switch that sets the device off It's usually like sometimes to be a tripwire, but usually or a timer But most times it's like a firing button where someone is watching that they actually press or a radio signal from like Say a cell phone or something. Yeah, anything that can relay information that can trigger an event to that trigger Like a garage store opener cell phone radio, whatever, right? That makes a pretty handy trigger switch. That's right. So the detonator. Yeah, that is the The small charge that sets off the larger charge. I know we talked about this since something. Oh building implosions exactly

Yeah, there you go Yeah, it's kind of the same thing. Yeah You're taking a little charge because it doesn't take quite as much to set that one off and then you use the energy The force created from that one. Yeah to explode the larger charge the main charge or the primary charge, right and You can actually use conventional weapons conventional bombs like an unexploded landmine as The primary charge right fertilizers very handy apparently Yeah, and then from the main charge we move on to the container That's the thing that holds everything together whether it's a pressure cooker or an old washing machine, right or whatever

What did they do in Boston pressure cookers? Was that what it was? Okay, but they snuck in and backpacks. Is that right? Yeah That is some scary stuff. It really takes a lot to not Be super freaked out at any public event after something like that Yeah, you know, it definitely takes a little while to for even the most rational stable person Yeah, say no, I'm just gonna I'm gonna go to this marathon and hang out and not worry about things Yeah, I think it increases vigilance for sure and then of course like in the NFL this year, you know, I got the Falcon season tickets they sent out a statement to all the ticket holders that you can't like bring bags into the game anymore

unless they're those clear bags that Like high school students have to use now I didn't know you could ever bring bags like you could bring a backpack into the game or something Yeah, or purse or anything like you can't bring any of that stuff in you bring a purse any longer No, it's got to be like they have a size requirement. It's basically, you know, a little small purse that can fit your ID and stuff Yeah, but um, yeah, they're putting the kibosh on that. Yeah, I can fit your ID, but not your IED That's right. Yeah, that should be their slogan, which I mean, I guess it's Not much to give up like a purse, of course

I don't carry purses so it's not a big inconvenience for me, right, but you know, I mean to Ensure that much more safety. Yeah, that doesn't seem like enough But it's also part of that slippery slope where it's like, okay, we made that concession And what's the next concession right taking off your shoes and lying at the airport not that big of a deal But when you add it together with all this other stuff all of a sudden we're pretty much constantly thinking There's constantly an awareness of the threat that's out there That's probably good to a certain degree that I mean there. Yes, it is, but I think it's also a double-edged sword where it's like you're You maybe you're safer, but you're also more stressed out, right, you know, yeah

And it certainly doesn't limit The racial profiling and stuff like that. Yeah, you know after events like that and your people are staring down People of different colors and races and oh, yeah, I'm sure like the random Pat down through like a TSA line is pretty far from random. Yeah, you know true See our podcast on On the no-flight list Right you went on that. Yeah, I genuinely don't recall it. Yeah, give yourself a break buddy Yeah, but I would think like I could remember any of them eventually if you said the title

Yeah, we did one on no-fly lists Like how do you land yourself on a no-fly list? Okay on a government list? It's like no fly right. Yeah. Yeah, okay. That was my fault. I said the wrong title. That's why I wasn't jogged Yeah, we did one on like flying and stuff All right, so there's there are other things packed inside these devices as well basically For use of shrapnel anything from nails to ball bearings Sometimes it can be toxic chemicals

To cause fire it can be all sorts of nasty things Um Yeah, and it can be part of a dirty bomb. It can be like the means to get a dirty bomb Exploded right would chuck you before we go any further. You want to do maybe a message break? I think so, okay? 2023 is already well underway everybody So don't wait any longer to level up your small business and the way you can do that is by joining up with stamps.com That's right because with stamps.com you're gonna be able to print your own postage and shipping labels right there from your home Or office or home office and you know, it's ready to go in minutes

You can get back to running your business sooner than later. Yep stamps.com is like the post office elevated They have rates you literally can't find anywhere else which comes in handy because postage rates just increased again like up to 84% off of USPS and UPS plus stamps.com automatically tells you your cheapest and fastest shipping options See you stamps.com to print postage wherever you do business All you need is that computer and printer set your business up for success when you get started with stamps.com today Just use our promo code stuff for a special offer That's gonna include a four week trial plus free postage and that free digital scale no long-term Commitments or contracts. Just go to stamps.com click on the microphone at the top of the page and enter our code stuff

You're ready to travel in 2023 and since 1981 Gate 1 travel has been providing more of the world for less let gate one handle the planning for you with affordable Escorted tours in European River Cruises and right now through January 30th use promo code heart 20 to receive 20% off your tour That's promo code heart 20 through January 30th visit gate one travel comm for more information or to book your tour That's gate the number one travel comm once again use promo code heart 20 through January 30th to receive 20% off your 2023 trip Chuck so we've talked about what parts there are to a an IED Let's talk about how they fit together and obviously we're not going to give you any kind of instructional now step by step but there I mean there's just

General information about how it it's how they fit together. Yeah, so you got your power source Which we talked about right and that's going to give you the electricity that you need to Power the the trigger and the detonator So that's how those fit together right and then you've got the trigger which activates the detonator Yeah, which also requires some sort of power. Yeah Or also draws power from the power source And the trigger can be it can be set on a timer, right like the old like a sticks of dynamite with the clock Timer, you know really wires. That's an IED. I suppose sure

the It has a sensor on it. Yeah, it could be activated by a trip wire It could there's all sorts of things you can do somebody could be standing off in the distance watching and pressing a Calling a phone. Yeah, I remember we talked about it before I don't remember which one it was But we talked about supposedly a separatist a Chechen separatist Maybe it was planning on bombing Red Square in Moscow. Oh, yeah in the New Year's before last and She blew up because she got a text message from her phone

Before she made it out of her apartment. She got like a happy New Year message from the phone provider Wow, I never followed up to make sure that wasn't an urban legend, but it is a heck of a story. Yeah, I Do remember talking about that. Yeah, and I believe it You could just why not? Yeah, why not? And then you've got like it said we got the detonator which provides the energy for the main one then the main charge Which sends a shock wave or a blast wave and shrapnel and fire or toxic chemicals or whatever outward very fast Yeah, and the big problem like we said with IEDs and with combating IEDs is you can make them from so many different materials There's all sorts of different types of explosives you can use. Yeah

The parts you can get from just about anywhere. I know in the Boston bombings. They used the trigger was Triggered via an RC car. Oh, right. They use regular like batteries D cell batteries These so you can get this stuff from anywhere. So like if you were really interested in stopping IEDs from being produced and made Your supply lines following supply lines is really difficult. Yeah, it's not like you can trace things Yeah, and they're just coming from so many different places. Yeah, it's like there. We're banning RC cars Can't really do that. Yeah, I did see where the government is Trying to track this stuff a little bit more

They spent more than 200 million dollars the Pentagon has Basically just trying to get a hold of the problem all together But they have something called the joint improvised explosive device defeat organization or Jai dididoo, right and I think they're gonna get about 217 million dollars this year and one of the things that they're trying to do is Track some of the stuff out of Pakistan. It seems to be one of the main countries or things like calcium ammonium nitrate are coming from Yeah, fertilizer. Yeah, and Pakistan saying we kind of have an agricultural Sector that needs fertilizer. So we're not gonna stop making fertilizer part of the problem is that's also the main source of explosive material being used in

IEDs so that yeah, this shows you the problem. You're part of the problem at least. Yeah The the other part of the problem is there's so many different ways to deliver an IED You can just put it somewhere. You they're very easily hid. Yeah In say like a rubble or a trash pile or like you said in the carcass of a dog or a cow or something like that Just something that seems innocuous. They can be buried. Yeah They can be left in a car. Yeah, those are vehicle-borne IEDs. Yeah, and that have you seen I'm really into these modern war movies Have you seen? Hurt locker is one. I haven't seen that one. Oh, so good and

Zero dark 30. That was the worst part of the movie What part where the ladies like jumping up and down like yeah, my informants coming for the car bomb That's what happened though, dude, and the other girls on the other and saying like OMG I'm so excited for you. It's like their characters suddenly just totally deteriorate Like into just these caricatures like what happened at that part. She was jumping up and down like yeah, I Don't know man. She was probably pretty excited to I just thought it was very Weird so much so I'm like what is the director trying to do here? Like what she's trying to say something that I'm not picking up on it. It was just odd. Yeah, but yes

It was a vehicle-borne explosion But you like the movie aside from that aside from that. Yeah, that was pretty cool both those were Catherine Bigelow, right? But yeah, I never saw her locker her lockers great And then green zone was another good one the Matt Damon one wasn't that like the born identity for isn't that with a lot of People called that. Oh, really? Yeah. Well, that's just silly wasn't it by the same guy who directed it to You maybe I think it was Paul Greengrass. I think yeah, yeah, but it was that's just silly It was because it was Matt Damon kicking butt and Paul Greengrass. Yeah, but it was a war movie not a spy movie or whatever Those born movies were yeah, I got you. Um, I take issue with that statement. Okay

All right, so let's talk a little bit about the explosion itself I said that gas heats up expands rapidly and how rapidly Josh Well, if you're talking explosion Usually at least 1600 feet per second 488 meters per second. Yeah, which is a lot. That's your blast wave Yeah, you're anywhere near that then you're probably not gonna make it out and it creates a lot of force measured in atmospheric

Pressure G's. Oh, yeah, how many G's up to a thousand times the normal atmospheric pressure at sea level So you remember in the diving bell episode. Yeah, we were talking about or no, it was the The ejection seat episode. Oh, yeah, we talked about how when you eject from a plane, right? You can be depending on how fast you're going You can be subjected up to 20 G's all of a sudden when you when your seat shoots out. This is a thousand G's All right, so that's gonna send that shrapnel at that same speed which is gonna do tons of damage There's secondary shrapnel from stuff like windows and buildings that are gonna be splintered and flying around, right? There's the fire itself

secondary fires and then this one I didn't really think about though the The vacuum. Yeah, apparently can it leaves a vacuum that can like Cause you to go blind or deaf and well it blows it out Yeah, so much that yeah, it causes a partial vacuum and then the air rushes back in to fill it and it brings all that other Debris that it just shot out right back into you. So you get it twice. I guess if you're in that blast zone And I guess the atmosphere pressure is what can give you like concussions. That's the shockwave swelling of the brain Yeah, like what is it a traumatic brain injury, which is so similar to PTSD. Oh, yeah And it also points out too. I'd never really would have thought about this but air filled tissues and organs

Like your lungs and your bowels can actually be perforated with this pressure change. Yeah, that's just unbelievable Yeah And like we said, if you're close to one of these you're probably not gonna make it out alive if you're a little further way outside that primary blast radius You're likely gonna be injured a lot of I think 61% of Wounds in Afghanistan are still caused by IEDs. So while deaths are down Still a lot of guys and ladies being wounded. Yeah, you know losing limbs There's a lot. There's a huge increase in Iraq and Afghanistan to lost limbs and brain traumatic brain injuries

Because they're being protected from Kevlar Whereas before these these protections and the measures that that the military took to protect soldiers More instituted prior to that they would have just died right so they wouldn't have been chalked up to the casualty or the injured List right they would have been chalked up to the dead list, right? Yeah So now it's like yeah, they're being protected, but they're also losing limbs. They're also like they have brain injuries There's big problems that they're carrying along with them as well. Yeah, just one of the things that's made this war so expensive Not just financially, but in like, you know human costs as well Yeah, and of course civilians aren't protected at all. So they're dying. Yeah

At the rapid rate. So you've got IEDs. They are out there. There's a problem. What have we learned from Iraq and Afghanistan? Like how do you protect against that either use of IEDs? Well, one thing they use is dogs to sniff them out and I know at some point We have a good article on war dogs that we might cover But dogs is one way. Mm-hmm. Like I said just living in country and learning That you know every time one of those goes off. They probably learn a new method Yeah to add to the list which is scary But also great to be there and sort of get inside their head a little bit paying attention and being suspicious is another one

Yeah, like there's an instance that's given in this article about a Marine spotter who noticed a man Outside of Habaniah Iraq. Yeah, who was videotaping a convoy Yeah, it's like that's kind of a dead giveaway. This guy should be checked out I guess they looked at him and saw that he had a high-powered rifle on the seat next to him and They shot and killed him and went over and apparently he had a bunch of parts to make IEDs with that's right So I guess it was scouting or what have you and then not very Syrup-ticiously either. Yeah, it's like

And he probably well, you never know I was gonna say he might have one of those video cameras from like the 80s to It's like said on a shoulder. It's not even a small one. Yeah They do have some new technology though, which is pretty cool and it makes sense because if you're using Like a signal from a cell phone. Let's say to set these things off You might think hey, can they jam those things and they can you know, they do and they're trying to that's something terribly named Device called the nerf and IRF. Yeah, which stands for neutralizing improvised Explosive devices. Oh, no wait. Yeah. Oh, yeah

Is it nerf? Yeah Isn't that a terrible acronym? So nerf. Oh with radio frequency. Okay. Sorry. Give them the whole thing neutralize neutralizing improvised explosive devices with radio frequency nerf. Yes, and that emits a high frequency pulse that Basically just shorts out all the electronics in the area. Yeah, they also have on devices that emit bursts of microwave radiation That fry the electronics anywhere around so if you have an IED coming up and you shoot it with some microwaves It probably isn't gonna work. That's right And I have lasers the L the libs LIBS man the military and their acronyms. Yeah, like everything

I love those when I'm talking with my brother-in-law. He's just like and he's so used to saying what they are too And it's just like rapid fire. Mm-hmm. We'll say like libs laser induced breakdown specter. See I can even say it spectroscopy Well, it's specter spectroscopy is a difficult word to say either way. That's what I call it libs Yeah, and these detect IED explosives within about a hundred feet, which is pretty good Because these things, you know, most of the time it's not like It's not a daisy cutter, you know, the explosion is large, but it's not, you know, if you're 500 yards away It's not gonna have much of an impact on you and they they've gotten a lot better at detecting devices

apparently 86 percent of IEDs In Afghanistan were detected before they went off and I think 2011. Yeah, 2012 and Did you hear about the guy who? Sold fake bomb detectors like around the world now He's this British guy named James McCormick and for 10 years He sold this device called the ADE 651 which stood for advanced detection equipment and basically what it was was a device called

The the Gopher Which is used to find lost golf balls and it actually doesn't work It doesn't even find lost golf balls It has no better no better chance than random chance to detect a golf ball or anything else Wow, this guy just repackaged these things and sold them what he sold one to a government for 300 grand Apparently the Iraqi police bought six thousand of them. They're still in use all over the country They don't do anything this guy made 60 million dollars over 10 years selling these things and he's a total fraud Is he in jail or anything? Yeah, they got him finally doing 10 years in prison. Wow, and they took his money

Yeah, but who knows how many people like died because of him. Yeah. Yeah, it's pretty scary They also have like you talked about there the Humvees and stuff are more armored now, but they also have Things called mine resistant ambush protected vehicles m-wraps and they Have a flat undercarriage in the shape of a V which will supposedly divert the blast. Yeah, rather than flat It's like it goes it comes to a point Yeah, it makes makes sense it diverts it away instead of just right up under the vehicle So you just have to hope you're not standing next to the vehicle and the thing goes off because it's gonna direct all that stuff towards

Straight out. Yeah, and then just today We learned that a company called Oshkosh Not Oshkosh bagash No, but I wonder if they're related the military vehicle division of Oshkosh bagash in Wisconsin is Oshkosh bagash, Wisconsin Yeah, is it really? Yeah, but this Oshkosh is probably a place there Yeah, don't you think I believe it is? All right, we'll look into that. Maybe they make a onesies and Military vehicles, but in Washington DC right now today is August what like 13th today is the 14th

14th in DC this week They have a trade show and Oshkosh is unveiling the Terra max and the Terra not terror Terra is in land the Terra max is Unmanned which is kind of cool and it has a counter ID payloads and And it's basically a little ATV that I guess is remote-controlled or it says it can run in a supervised Autonomous mode right remote control. Oh, is that what that is?

That's just another way. Yeah They should say RV man. Yeah Yeah, so that's pretty cool. So they're definitely spending money at the rate of about 200 to 220 million a year Mm-hmm to try and combat this. Yeah Well, and that's all I got it's all I got to um If you're interested in this you can also another way of delivering an IED is via suicide bomber And we did an entire episode on suicide bombers. Did we not we did okay? So you might want to check that out as well

And if you want to learn more about IEDs and how to combat them you can type IED into the search bar at house stuff works Com and since I said search bar, it's time for a message break 2023 is already well underway everybody So don't wait any longer to level up your small business and the way you can do that is by joining up with stamps calm That's right because with stamps calm you're gonna be able to print your own postage and shipping labels right there from your home Or office or home office, and you know, it's ready to go in minutes You can get back to running your business sooner than later. Yep stamps calm is like the post office elevated They have rates you literally can't find anywhere else which comes in handy because postage rates just increased again like up to

84% off of USPS and UPS plus stamps calm automatically tells you your cheapest and fastest shipping options So use stamps calm to print postage wherever you do business all you need is that computer and printer set your business up For success when you get started with stamps calm today Just use our promo code stuff for a special offer that's gonna include a four-week trial plus free postage And that free digital scale no long-term commitments or contracts Just go to stamps calm click on the microphone at the top of the page and enter our code stuff You're ready to travel in 2023 and since 1981 1981 gate one travel has been providing more of the world for less let gate one handle the planning for you with affordable

Escorted tours in European River Cruises and right now through January 30th use promo code heart 20 to receive 20% off your tour That's promo code heart 20 through January 30th visit gate one travel comm for more information or to book your tour That's gate the number one travel comm once again use promo code heart 20 through January 30th to receive 20% off your 2023 trip. All right chuckers. How about a listening mail? All right, this one's called I worked with a hyperbolic chamber Derek hyperbaric what I say hyperbolic the guys like it's the largest chamber in the world It's so full of hyperbole Hi, thanks for catching that by the way

That's what I just finished listening to the how does the diving belt work and I couldn't help but think about a guy I think about a lot. I used to live on a Caribbean island called Utila sin Honduras Utila or Utila is known for backpackers learning to dive whilst traveling around Central America I was a scuba instructor on the island and also drove the hyperbaric chamber or hyperbolic chamber set up and funded by small The charge to all divers although we treated locals for free All of us non Hondurans learn to dive as safely as possible, but the locals go for lobster They called them bugs had horrific diving conditions

They would have a guy in a boat a couple of dive tanks without pressure gauges attached along hoses that the fishermen would use to breathe They knew that they were running out of air when it became hard to breathe Once they realized they were running out of air they would surface quickly, but stay in the water drink a coke And smoke a joint it would be attached to a new tank then and go down looking for more lobsters or bugs It's the stuff in their sacks This was going down there. There's an article about this industry and this way of getting lobsters in Mexico by hand in Harper's I think last month's Harper's or this month's Harper's Wow Yeah, it's like just like that really really dangerous. Yeah, they're really cavalier and they get hurt a lot

Apparently they smoke weed while they're doing it. Yeah This one guy came in to the chamber room in pain and twisted up We were pretty sure he wouldn't walk again gave him a couple of rides in the chamber over a couple of days This entailed trips down to the equivalent of 60 feet only to be slowly brought back to the surface quote-unquote Sorry quote surface in quote over a few hours time We also did some hydrotherapy on our small pool because he wasn't getting any better We had to fly him off the island to the mainland but keep the plane just above the water So as not to elevate them much higher than sea level after leaving him at the hospital

I never saw heard about him again. He was a husband and father of two. That was 12 years ago And I think about him often That's from James Thanks James. I thought that was a pretty great email too. Yeah, and he sent a picture of the hyperbolic hyperbaric James Yeah, it was pretty cool. Yeah, he said it was a bad picture. I thought that was great. Yeah seem fine your heart on yourself James Let yourself up If you want to send us a picture of something cool that you operate we'd like to see that You can tweet to us at sysk podcast. You can join us on facebook.com slash stuff

You should know you can send us an email to stuff podcast at discovery.com and you can join us at our home on the web Stuff you should know For more on this and thousands of other topics visit house stuff works calm You're ready to travel in 2023 and since 1981 gate one travel has been providing more of the world for less Let gate one handle the planning for you with affordable escorted tours and European River Cruises and right now through January 30th Use promo code heart 20 to receive 20% off your tour. That's promo code heart 20 through January 30th Visit gate one travel comm for more information or to book your tour. That's gate the number one travel comm once again Use promo code heart 20 through January 30th to receive 20% off your 2023 trip the South Dakota stories volume 3

It was my first time traveling alone packed my car with hiking boots a camera and my dog Randy I don't know what I was searching for. Maybe it was something new with adventure Maybe it was the idea of vacation. I would never expect filled with wildlife National parks rivers whatever it was. I set out to find it was all there and more Because there's so much South Dakota so little time